5 degrees

They say you are only 5 degrees from anyone in the world. Within 5 people you could talk to celebrities, politicians, world leaders, etc. I don't know if that's totally true. But I know that I'm 2 times 2 degrees from JB Mauney!! He's a local celeb. bullrider who is 4th in the world. My friend (I know her through a mutual friend) taught him in high school, and yesterday my dad told me one of his students is JB's cousin. I thought I'd post a picture that was taken last winter at the Greensboro, NC PBR event.

Jack has met several celebrities while shoeing horses. He's met playboy models (he was excited that day!!) He's met world record holders in riding horses cross country. He's met the new bad girl for the new revamped 90210 series. And more. I just can't think of them all right now. I don't know any famous people myself. My only claim to fame is that my mom and dad know Michael Tobias. He's big into making left handed guitars. (That's sad. I don't even personally know a celebrity!)

Who do you know?

The Fair, and Stuff

So today starts the local fair. It's a small, quaint little shindig. I however didn't enter a dang craft, baked item, or photograph. I'm kinda disappointed in myself. But it's my own fault. Maybe next year I'll get on the ball with that.

I've worked myself to the bone today. I've done 4 loads of laundry, and cleaned my carpet already and it's only 10:45. If I stay on this roll, I might even get a closet organized. (Don't hold your breath.)

Jimmy went with his grandmother today. SO I have the day to go and do what I want, but I'll probably go over to my friends and help her paint.

We rodeoed (can this be a verb, and is this past tense correct?) this weekend. Jimmy totally kicked butt!!! He rode his sheep like a champ. I've got to get some pictures. I never am able to take them myself, because I'm in the back pens helping him. Then I get so excited during his short 4 second ride, that I couldn't take a picture if I tried. :)

Well, I'm off to call about a job. Hopefully I'll get it, because it would be nice to have 2 incomes again.

Thursday

So I mowed grass all day on Sunday. I got it all cut. 5 hours. I now am debating on mowing it all again today. Yes, that is how fast it is growing. But I'll worry about it later. Right now I'm going to show you one of the things I did today.

So a friend of mine is moving. She's painting the entire place inside. So we went to pick out colors for that today.



These are the colors she's going to be using. Every earthy uh? We are going to do a lot with fabric in this place too. It's very small, but it's free. So that's a big savings for them. As we paint, I hope to be able to post here.

I'm either off to mow, or off to clean my carpet. I know, don't get jealous.

The Zoo!

We went to the NC Zoo for my husbands birthday. We had a blast. I will post pictures later today. We walked through Africa first.



We got to see the elephants bathing, right in front of us. Jimmy thought it was so cool.



Then we went on to North America. The elk were bulging. That was very neat. And Jimmy got to tell a little girl about elk. Him and his dad were very excited. They study elk and they love to see them. Then we kept walking and came to the polar bear. Rain happened next. But luckily we were underneath the walkway, and got to watch the polar bear jump into the water and swim around.



He stood up on the glass right in front of us. That was very cool. I will be posting pictures after I go to my aunts. I don't have an adapter for this camera she lent me.

Rain

It has rained. And rained, and rained. I am so very happy. I can hear my grass growing. We have been in a pretty bad dry spell. This rain is welcomed with open arms. Usually Thursdays I work on the ever impressive laundry. But since there is cloudy weather, there's no need to even think about hanging something outside. It will never get dry.

I think today I will focus on organizing all my closets. I've needed to do it. I also am cleaning my living room carpet. It gets horribly dirty. I am also going to draw up my plans for my chicken coup.

I want about 3-4 chickens. that would give me 21 eggs a week. Man! I better get to cooking. Eggs are one thing you can not freeze. But I guess I will learn how to pickle them. YUCK! I know, but my husband likes them. I'm not excited about pickling eggs, but will try it for him. And the fact that I hate to waste anything.

Now it's off to feed the bottle calf (next Tuesday's post). Then to run (trying to loose weight again). Then to clean the carpet. Big FUN!

Rodeo

I don't know that I've posted any pictures of any rodeos. This is a huge part of our life, and I should have posted some action shots.

This is a picture of one of our traveling partners. Many rodeos are far away, we hook up with other families who travel, and make it a group effort. This is a bullrider.

The bullrider straps himself to a bull with a rope. He wears a protective helmet, and vest. He also wears spurs and chaps. Bullriders take a ton of beating, and complain very little about it. On the bull is of course the bull riders rope, and a flank rope. This goes around the bull's belly, and is there to enhance the bull's natural talents. Most of the time flank ropes are not tight at all. I've sat in the bleachers at many rodeos, and listened to the spectators around me. They comment that the ropes are tight, or are there to injure the bull to make him mad. However, this couldn't be further than the truth. Take a string, and tie it around your finger. feels weird uh? That's the same as putting a flank rope on a bull. Oh and trust me. You don't want to injure your bulls. They are usually more expensive then the truck and trailer they rode in on. And some bulls just don't like people being in the ring with them. We have one that will let you scratch his head in the pasture. But in the arena...he will grind you into the dirt.

Mutton busting:
I don't have any pictures of Jimmy riding. Holy geesh!!! Next rodeo, I'll have some. My parents should be there. The reason why I don't have any is that I help put him on his sheep every time. SO I'm more concerned about yelling for him to hold on and pull up on his rope. But I'm sure they will get some good shots for me. This one is of me reloading the sheep whenever we we the stock contractors at a local arena.


So that's the rodeo. (At least all the pictures that I have.) I'll post some more in 2 weeks.

New start!

OK, My friend NCDarlingDeere, I'm blogging again. I am giving you all scouts honor that I will post something 2 days a week. I know what you are saying--"yeah right". But truly I will I PROMISE. I figure that since I have no job, and no prospect of one on the horizon, that I should add some form of structure back into my life (besides feeding schedules). So I will be giving you a new entry every Tuesday and Thursday. So here's today's:

Laundry
When does it end? We had a 2 day rodeo last weekend, and it's taken 3 days to get all the laundry done. And Thursday is my "regular" laundry day. I had to get all the weekend laundry done, along with all the laundry from taking the camper (sheets, towels, etc).



I'm trying to conserve energy/money, and so it's to the clothes line we go after all the washing is done on each load. Speaking of that, I need to start turning off the ac. I better check the weather for temps.

And ironing. My grandma constantly says that she has ironing to do. Gosh, so do I. I hate that I hate wrinkles. I love shirts that are literally crispy sounding. I let all the jean dry on the line. If I do that then I don't have to starch and iron them--thank goodness. So have about 2000 shirts to iron, some starched, some not.

So off I go. I've got 2 hours before feeding time that means 10 shirts. At least that's my goal.